yeah, I went through all that as well. The whole "the world as we know it is gonna end" and the "Gotta be ready when it all falls apart" thing. I fell for the whole 9 yards prepper thing. The Ruger mini 14's and crates of ammo in the basement, the crates of freeze dried food, and other stuff. I had the awakening and sold off all that crap, kept the food items and used them up on family canoe camping trips.
A major breaking point was visiting some in laws that lived in Sweden. My son-in-law, my daughter's husband is Swedish, but born in the USA in California. His dad, Bill, is my age, and was born in Sweden and came here as a kid, but has kept close ties with family. So some years ago, they were having a big trip back to the family turf, and Bill (Son-in-law's dad who lives in Costa Mesa Ca.) invited us along. Took advantage of the opportunity to see Sweden with some real residents. They were country folks, about 100 and some miles north of Stockholm. It was yet another eye opener. Here were real woodsmen, living in nice cabins, wearing a 10 dollar Mora fixed blade on the belt, with a SAK in the pocket. In Sweden, a 'pocket knife' is always a SAK. They fished and hunted with just that combo, with maybe a small hatchet or saw added.
They call Elk an Alg or something like that, and they have no trouble taking one down with an old but well kept 8mm Mouser. Butchering is done with the Mora's and a small saw or Fiskars hatchet. No high end 200 dollar knives, just that 10 dollar Mora. And it sliced through that elk like hot knife through butter. We later fished a small river, and fish were cleaned and cooked up with mora and a few folding fishing knives by Eka, a Swedish knife company. I did come home with a black p[lasitci handle Eka that can come apart for cleaning. Nice thin flexible blade slices like the dickens.
That trip was yet another blow to my fading knife obsession. It was some very rugged country covered by thick forests yet not a single "Bushcraft" knife in sight. I saw these people process and work with all kinds of wood, food, and meat, and not a single other knife in sight but the old Mora on the belt, and a SAK in the pocket. Some of the kitchen knives were Mora as well. Aside from the ubiquitous SAK's, the only other non Swedish knives I saw were some various Opinels.
I came home after a few weeks with a very different view. If the world ever does really end, there's some Swedish guys I know that will just keep on doing what they do with mora's and SAK's.